Video to SRT converter (MP4, MOV, WebM)

What the converter produces

An MP4 file does not contain subtitles you can “extract” unless someone embedded a subtitle track. Converting MP4 to SRT therefore means transcribing the speech and timing it. SubtitleWave does that, then splits the result into subtitle-sized cues following the conventions most broadcasters and streaming services use:

• no more than 2 lines per subtitle and about 42 characters per line (the Netflix Timed Text Style Guide limit for Latin-script languages);
• line breaks balanced so the two lines are similar in length;
• each subtitle on screen for at most about 6 seconds;
• overlaps removed so one cue ends before the next begins.

Cues whose reading speed goes over 17 characters per second are flagged, and one click shortens them with AI or stretches their timing where there is room.

Already have subtitles inside the MP4?

If the video was exported with a soft subtitle track (common with MKV and some MP4 files), a desktop tool such as FFmpeg can copy it out exactly: ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -map 0:s:0 subs.srt. Browsers cannot read embedded subtitle tracks, so this page transcribes instead, which also works when there is no track at all.

Import the SRT into your editor

App	How
Premiere Pro	File › Import the .srt, drag it onto the timeline; it becomes a caption track you can restyle.
DaVinci Resolve	Media Pool › Import Subtitle, then drag onto the timeline.
Final Cut Pro	File › Import › Captions (SRT is supported since 10.4.1).
VLC	Give the .srt the same name as the video, or Subtitle › Add Subtitle File.
YouTube	Studio › Subtitles › Add language › Upload file › With timing.